The founders of the Wissenschaft des Judentums had a keen interest in Jewish erudition during the Renaissance, especially in Italy. Leopold Zunz, for example, regarded the work of Azaria de' Rossi as the point of departure for the historical-critical method upon which he based his "Science of Judaism." In the past two centuries, Jewish writings from the Renaissance have been edited and reinterpreted. In the areas of historiography, philosophy and Kabbala, we have important new findings from research conducted in recent years. For a short time now, scholars active in the field of Judaic...

Peter Schafer who celebrated his 60th birthday on 29 June 2003 has left a decidedly firm imprint on the young discipline "Jewish Studies" in Germany, which could only be set up at a German university after the Shoah. For someone directing a "small" academic institution he has managed during his academic career to guide and influence a strikingly large number of students in their scholarly pursuits in the field. The collected essays of this volume encompass quite a variety of topics, whereby the focal points in Peter Schafer's own research are not difficult to recognize in the themes chosen by...

The study of the Hebrew language in Protestant Europe initiated the development of modern philology. Christian theology and Jewish tradition fostered Christian Hebraism, which functioned as a catalyst for many subjects in the humanities.
This volume presents the results of a conference held in Wittenberg in October 2002. It evaluates the history of Christian Hebraism, from Jewish grammatical works up to the Hebrew training of Protestant missionaries. Prominent figures like Ludwig Geiger and Hermann L. Strack as well as different centres of Hebrew learning from Basel to Groningenare...